Page 45 of Wolf Caged
Yet I wanted to go out there and explore it all, to soak it all in and fly free of my pretty, gilded cage.
And that was the reason I was excited about meeting the fae king for a swim. Adventure. Not Kaeleron.
I needed to break free of these walls and breathe for a moment, to immerse myself in nature and let the pain and the fear and all my feelings fall away for a time while it filled me up. My quarters might be bigger than my family’s cabin back home, but the more I looked at those trees, the smaller it felt, until the black stone walls were closing in on me and I couldn’t breathe.
I needed to run.
I needed to be out there.
Whether or not it was allowed, I no longer cared. I needed to run and feel the wind on my face. I needed the space and the freedom, because I couldn’t breathe in this castle. I needed to be outside, among nature. If Kaeleron punished me for it, so be it.
I washed up in the bathroom and dressed in the leathers and blouse I had been given, and strode back into the bedroom to find my boots.
There was a black box on the foot of the bed.
I frowned as I went to it, unsure when someone had entered my room to place it there because I hadn’t heard anyone enterand my wolf side was on high alert, so eager for freedom that it was hyper-focused on the world.
Unless someone had used magic to put it there.
I slowly inhaled, catching the scent of a wild storm on the black cardboard.
Kaeleron.
He had sent it to my room.
My heart picked up pace, drumming rapidly against my ribs as I edged closer to the box, bracing myself for what might be inside. I had asked for a swimsuit but hadn’t specified what kind, and now I imagined it would be a flimsy and revealing bikini.
I whipped the lid off.
Revealing a boring black one piece.
Surprise swept through me as I stared at it, together with a little thread of disappointment. I shook that off. A one piece was perfect. I wasn’t looking to expose myself to the fae king or put ideas in his head with a revealing bikini. Although, showing a little skin might have encouraged him to agree to my request to see more of the castle town or those woods.
I shut down that line of thought. It would also encourage him to think he could order me into his bed or that I wanted him.
Beneath the plain black swimsuit was a matching black sarong, as if Kaeleron wanted as much of me covered as possible. Or perhaps the moody fae king was trying to give me some modesty while I walked through his castle. He probably thought I was delicate and afraid of others looking at me.
A brittle scoff escaped my lips.
He had a lot to learn about wolves.
I changed into the swimsuit and didn’t bother bringing the sarong with me as I marched towards the doors and opened them.
One of my handmaidens, the younger of the two, appeared before me, as if she had been somewhere in the ether, waitingfor me to emerge from my room. Or she had been guarding it and ordered to stop me if I attempted to leave, which seemed far more plausible.
The servant gave me a once over and then glanced into the room behind me, at the bed—at the discarded sarong.
I tipped my head up and strode down the hallway, heading in the direction we had taken last night when I had gone to dine with the king. She hurried ahead of me, taking the lead and guiding the way down to the curving staircases to the ground floor and out into the garden. Curious gazes tracked me as I paraded through the neat formal garden, my chin tipped up and shoulders squared.
Let them look.
Let them see what their king had brought into their castle.
I earned a few scowls from the highborn females as I strode past them, not even bothering to acknowledge them as I made a beeline for the lake, my handmaiden struggling to keep up with me now.
The pale stone flags were warm beneath my bare feet and despite how muted the light was, it kept the chill of the sea breeze off my bare skin.
“This way.” The handmaiden managed to get ahead of me at the lakeshore and guided me towards the left side of the rippling body of water.
